Martinborough Wines to Cellar Now: Why 2024 Could Be a Vintage for the Ages

This week we interrupt our series on the wines of Hungary to celebrate some of the outstanding wines from the 2024 vintage that guests on my Martinborough wine tours have been tasting.

A vintage worth watching

Every wine region has occasional vintages that seem to strike an almost perfect balance between quality and character. In Martinborough, there is growing speculation that 2024 may prove to be one of those years.

The vintage was shaped by lower-than-average yields, the result of cool conditions during flowering and frost impacts in some areas. While growers harvested less fruit than usual, the smaller crop appears to have concentrated quality. Combined with a warm, largely dry growing season and cool nights leading into harvest, the result is wines of unusual intensity, purity and balance. Producers across the region have spoken enthusiastically about both the consistency and quality of the vintage.

What strikes me most about the wines I have tasted over recent months is not simply their concentration, but their generosity. The finest 2024 Pinot Noirs possess the depth, structure and tannin profile needed for long-term cellaring, yet many are already remarkably expressive and accessible. Rather than tightly wound, austere wines that demand years of patience, they combine immediate appeal with the underlying architecture required to develop over a decade or more.

That same balance appears across other varieties. Chardonnays show both richness and freshness, while Syrah may prove one of the vintage's biggest success stories. Where Martinborough Syrah can sometimes emphasise the white pepper and herbal spice associated with rotundone, many 2024 examples appear darker, riper and more generous, showing black pepper, dark fruit and greater flesh without sacrificing regional character. Even the region's smaller plantings of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec seem to have benefited from the season, producing wines of impressive ripeness and concentration.

The collector's opportunity

Of course, it is far too early to declare 2024 Martinborough's greatest vintage. Such judgements belong to history rather than harvest reports. Yet the enthusiasm among producers is strikingly widespread, and the wines themselves already suggest something special. The combination of reduced yields, exceptional fruit quality, concentration and balance means that 2024 has all the hallmarks of a vintage that collectors will be talking about for many years to come.

The very conditions that produced such concentrated, age-worthy wines have also reduced volumes. For collectors, that creates both opportunity and challenge. The finest 2024s have the potential to reward patience for many years, but they are unlikely to remain available indefinitely.

Collectors should not assume these wines will remain on the market for long. Some of the most sought-after bottlings have already sold out, most notably the Nga Waka Lease Block Pinot Noir 2024, winner of the International Pinot Noir Trophy at this year's International Wine Challenge. Fortunately, the gold medal-winning Nga Waka Estate Pinot Noir 2024 remains available at the time of writing. If a wine has disappeared from a winery's cellar door list, it is also worth checking Martinborough Wine Merchants, which occasionally retains limited stocks after a producer has sold out.

The following wines are just some of the 2024 Martinborough releases that I believe are most deserving of a place in the cellar.

Signature representatives of a cellar-worthy vintage

Chardonnay

• Ata Rangi Masters Chardonnay

Precise, linear elegance and minerality

• Dry River Chardonnay

Rich and opulent crème brulee, brioche and ripe stonefruit

• Palliser Estate Om Santi Chardonnay

Full-bodied, toasted nuts, peach and apricot

• Oraterra Chardonnay

Layered and textured with meidium body and complexity

• Te Kairanga John Martin

Lean, focused and crisp with white stonefruits and drive

Pinot Noir

• Craggy Range Martinborough Pinot Noir

Plush fruit driven palate with serious structure Decanter trophy winning

• Ata Rangi Pinot Noir

Concentration, depth and ethereal silkiness

• Ata Rangi McCrone

The powerhouse of their SVs with dark fruit, an earthy savoury undercarriage and ferrous tannins

• Dry River Single Barrel Select Bottling

Awarded a perfect 100 points by James Suckling, “one of the best pinot noirs I have tasted in Martinborough…”. Old clone 5 vines only 300 odd bottles

• Escarpment Kupe

The Abel clone flagship, concentrated, spicy and structured for the long haul

• Escarpment Pahi

Fragrant silky and bright, Pahi is the most immediately approachable of their SV Pinots.

• Martinborough Vineyard Home Block

Full-bodied, concentrated with structure to age

• Nga Waka Lease Block

Ripe, rich, silky and long.

• Oraterra Pinot Noir

Seamless structure with fine silky tannins, rich fruit and savoury spice

• Schubert Wines Block B

Beautiful balance of fruit and savoury depth

• Te Kairanga John Martin

Rich dark fruits with savoury spice undertones and fine tannins

Syrah

• Ata Rangi Italian Block

Limited production with lovely florals, dark berries, cracked pepper and a hint of meat on a firm but velvety frame.

• Ata Rangi Juliet

Perfumed and spicy with a core of blackberry fruit, the softer pepperiness makes this proven cellar performer more immediately approachable.  

• Cambridge Road Syrah

Rich powerful and complex with dark plum fruit, chocolate, spice and olive tapenade

• Dry River Lovat Vineyard

Concentrated, complex and savoury with olve tapenade, plum and berry compote, cracked pepper and fine tannins.

• Schubert Syrah

Northern-Rhone like with black fruit, chocolate, black pepper, green olive and cured meats.  

Red Blends

While there are some other interesting reds and red blends in Martinborough that might repay short to mid-term cellaring such as Nga Waka Gamay and Groves St Vincent, there is only one standout for long-term cellaring:

Ata Rangi Celebre

Rich almost plush right bank Bordeaux in profile with the signature Syrah cracked pepper and cured meat lift over plum, boysenberry and pencil lead aromas and flavours with fine chalky tannins and perfectly balanced freshness.

Final Thoughts

Only time will reveal which of these wines ultimately emerge as the stars of the 2024 vintage. Yet what already seems clear is that Martinborough has produced a remarkable collection of wines that combine concentration, balance and unusually early appeal. For collectors, opportunities like this do not come along every year. The best bottles are likely to evolve for many years, but with production volumes reduced and demand already strong, securing them may require almost as much patience and persistence as cellaring them.

The vintage may also prove significant for another reason. While Pinot Noir remains Martinborough's flagship variety, 2024 could be remembered as the year that finally put to rest lingering doubts about the region's suitability for Syrah. As discussed in my article on the future of Syrah in Martinborough, the variety has long shown promise but has often divided opinion. Critics have questioned whether Martinborough's cooler climate can consistently ripen Syrah to the level achieved in Hawke's Bay, while supporters point to the region's ability to produce wines of perfume, spice and distinction.

The 2024 vintage may offer the strongest evidence yet for the latter view. Rather than simply delivering peppery, cool-climate curiosities, many of the wines show genuine depth, generosity and completeness. The black-fruited character, ripe tannin profiles and distinctive spice notes evident in the best examples suggest a variety that is not merely surviving in Martinborough but increasingly establishing its own regional identity. If that proves true over time, 2024 may be remembered not only as an outstanding vintage, but also as an important milestone in the evolution of Martinborough wine.

Do you agree that 2024 could become one of Martinborough's finest vintages? If you've tasted any of these wines, or have your own recommendations for the cellar, I'd be delighted to hear from you in the comments below.